Supercomputer

February 26, 1997 | GARY MILHOLLIN, Gary Milhollin is director of the Wisconsin Project on Nuclear Arms Control in Washington

It should come as no surprise that Russian scientists are now designing nuclear weapons with powerful American supercomputers. When California-based Silicon Graphics improperly outfitted one of Russia's nuclear laboratories last fall, it was the inevitable result of the Clinton administration's penchant for putting export earnings above national security. The Silicon Graphics computers are about 10 times more powerful than anything the Russians had before.

The Boulder, Colo.-based National Center for Atmospheric Research has acquired an additional Cray supercomputer after Minnesota-based Cray Research, the last U.S. supercomputer manufacturer, blocked the federal agency's plans to purchase a Japanese-made NEC supercomputer.

Intel Corp. said Monday that it has developed for the Energy Department the world's fastest supercomputer, one able to perform 1 trillion operations a second. That speed comes close to tripling the previous record in computing speed achieved by Hitachi Ltd. in 1995 with a supercomputer capable of doing 368 billion operations a second, Intel executives said. The Intel supercomputer will be used at the government's Sandia National Laboratory to simulate the performance of U.S.

Seymour Cray, a legendary engineer and entrepreneur who for more then three decades built the world's fastest computers, died Saturday at age 71. Cray succumbed to the severe head and neck injuries he suffered in a Sept. 22 traffic accident near his Colorado Springs home. Widely known as the father of the supercomputer, Cray co-founded Control Data Corp. in the mid-1950s, and later launched Cray Research Inc. and then Cray Computer Inc.

Legendary computer designer Seymour Cray, the father of the supercomputer and long one of the world's most daring and inventive technologists, clung to life Monday at a Colorado Springs, Colo., hospital after a traffic accident left him with a broken neck and massive head injuries. Kate Brewster, a spokeswoman for Penrose Hospital, said Cray, 70, was in critical and unstable condition after surgery was performed Sunday to relieve pressure on his brain caused by swelling.

Inspired partly by the deaths of 14 firefighters, scientists are trying to use the power of supercomputers--once used only to simulate nuclear bomb blasts--to help foresters battle wildfires. "The ultimate goal is to save lives and property," said Rod Linn, who is doing the research at Los Alamos National Laboratory's theoretical division. Rugged terrain and capricious wind can combine to make a wildfire veer and turn unexpectedly.

The decision by the National Science Foundation last week to select a Japanese supercomputer for climate research has sent shock waves through the federal research establishment and raised serious questions about the competitiveness of U.S. firms. It marks the first time that Japanese suppliers have beat long-dominant Cray Research in a competition for a major federal procurement, showing that the United States' long superiority in supercomputing technology is now facing a serious challenge.

The U.S. National Science Foundation has selected NEC Corp. of Japan as the primary vendor to supply a multimillion- dollar supercomputer for a Colorado weather research center, NEC said today, marking the first time the U.S. government has purchased such a machine from a Japanese company. The decision came despite intense lobbying by U.S. supercomputer vendor Cray Research Inc.

In a surprise move, Silicon Graphics Inc., the maker of powerful graphics computers used to render the special effects in motion pictures such as "Forrest Gump" and "Jurassic Park" as well as 3-D workstations for scientists and engineers, will announce its intention to acquire troubled supercomputer pioneer Cray Research at a news conference to be held today in New York, sources said. Cray executives are expected to support the acquisition.